Parking At The Baths: A Mess – Says Resident

Virgin Gordians are concerned that the new tourist season has commenced and the top attraction on that island and the Territory — The Baths — has issues that have not been addressed.

The problem was aired at the public meeting that was held by Ninth District Representative, Dr. the Hubert O’Neal on 9 November. Two concerned residents said that they are very unhappy with the issue of car parking at The Baths.

A female resident said: “The Baths! There are lots of issues there. Maybe a year ago they cleared out an area that is supposed to be designated for parking. It is very bumpy, rocky, and when it rains it is a mess. The buses are unable to turn around because of what I would call poor design, where they have placed a walkway to the rest room in the middle of a turnaround area.”

The woman said that the parking issue should be sorted out urgently: “That situation needs to be addressed. On any given day, Wednesdays are usually pretty busy, you have sometimes 20 buses up there at a time, plus you have guests from the hotels, guests from the villas, you have day-trippers from St Thomas, St John and it is a mess. The police try but it is not enough. If there was adequate parking for both visitors and renters of private vehicles, as well as a designated area for the safari and taxis, it would resolve a lot of the problem. There is lots of land there that the national park owns and some of it needs to be designated for parking lot and turnaround areas,” she added.

Another resident announced that the National Parks Trust is in possession of plans for adequate parking at The Baths: “You could go directly to the National Parks Trust they have plans formulated, they were already signed, and were supposed to be done in a certain week in the month of November, they never matured …The plans are there,” the resident said.

Meanwhile, Hon. H. O’Neal said that he will visit and talk with Public Works to see if more parking can be created.